The present invention relates generally to the field of bags with handles for the manual carrying of goods and merchandise, such as are commonly dispensed to patrons of retail establishments for carrying and transportation of purchased items. More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel device and method of using the same for gathering and holding the handles of a plurality of such bags for ease of carrying and secure transportation thereof.
Retail establishments ranging from grocery stores to hardware and department stores have traditionally provided to their patrons one or more carrying bags for the goods or merchandise purchased. Since such bags are almost always provided on a complimentary basis, merchandisers prefer and normally use bags which are inexpensive and disposable. In the past, retail merchandise bags were most commonly made of paper, but in more recent years, bags made of a thin-walled plastic material have largely replaced paper bags. Such plastic bags offer the advantage to the retailer of being equally if not more inexpensive than paper bags, are lighter in weight yet still relatively strong, and do not weaken when wet as do paper bags. In further contrast to paper bags, such plastic bags may be easily provided with integrated carrying handles as part of the manufacturing process and without significant additional expense by forming corresponding openings in opposing side walls of the bags.
As a result, plastic bags of the aforementioned type have come into prevalent use in most retail establishments, but perhaps most notably in supermarkets and grocery stores. On the one hand, because these plastic bags are typically manufactured with a smaller volumetric capacity than the paper bags heretofore commonly used in supermarkets and grocery stores and are also more susceptible than paper bags to puncturing and tearing due to the very thin wall thickness of the plastic material, the maximum practical capacity in weight and volume of goods each individual plastic bags is capable of safely carrying is considerably less than that of an individual paper bag. On the other hand, because of the typically larger volume and number of items purchased by the patrons of supermarkets and grocery stores on a normal shopping visit in comparison to other types of retail establishments, the integrated handles of these plastic bags offer the advantage of enabling a customer to manually carry multiple bags of merchandise in each hand and, hence, to carry a significantly larger weight and volume of merchandise than is typically possible using paper bags.
Unfortunately, in carrying multiple plastic bags, the weight of the merchandise in the bags typically causes the plastic material of the handles to be pulled taut and thereby to narrow within the user""s hands into a thin cord-like or wire-like configuration. Hence, when carrying multiple bags collectively comprising a significant amount of weight and volume, the handle material of the bags often tends to bind and cut into the user""s hands making it difficult and uncomfortable to carry the bags for any significant distance.
Also, because such plastic bags do not have the stiffness of paper bags, such plastic bags do not have sufficient structural integrity to be self-standing or otherwise to maintain on their own an opened upright configuration. Hence, when such bags have been filled with merchandise and are then placed into the trunk or onto the seat of an automobile to be transported from the supermarket or grocery store, the merchandise contained therein tends to readily shift about and often causing items to spill out of the bags, which is not only annoying but can result in heavier items damaging more fragile items.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to address and overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of plastic carrying bags, with the expectation and desire that the carrying capacity and advantages of such bags may be optimized. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel device and a method of using such a device by which a user may gather for easy carrying and secure transportation of a plurality of such bags without pain or discomfort to the user""s hands and with minimized risk of spillage of goods from the bags.
Basically, the present invention is adapted for use with substantially any bags of the type having a carrying handle defining a handle opening and adapted for containing and transporting manually carriable goods, such as, for example, the above-described plastic bags used in supermarkets and grocery stores.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a novel device is provided which enables the handles of multiple such bags to be gathered for carrying such bags collectively as a group. Briefly summarized the device is a strap having an elongate body opposite ends which are formed as loop portions each defining an opening therethrough. The body is flexible with the loop portions being configured relative to one another such that each loop portion is capable of insertion through the opening of the other loop portion.
According to the method of use of the device contemplated by the present invention, a plurality of bags is first collected with the respective handles of the bags situated relative to one another so as to dispose the handle openings generally in close adjacency to one another. The strap is then inserted through the handle openings of the bags and the handles of the bags are then drawn together by means of the strap so as to expose the opposite ends of the strap at least partially outside the handle openings of the bags. One end of the strap is then inserted through the opening defined by the loop portion of the other end of the strap until the loop portion of such other end closes about the handles of the bags to secure them together. The bags may then be manually carried as a group by grasping the loop portion of the one end of the strap, either by grasping the loop portion thereof within the user""s fingers or by the user inserting his or her hand and wrist through the loop portion such that the user may grasp a medial extent of the strap within his or her fingers using the wrist to bear the weight of the bags therein.
Advantageously, when the one end of the strap is inserted through the opening defined by the loop portion of the other end of the strap, the loop portion of the latter end of the strap forms into a knot cinched about the handles of the bags, which will tend to retain the handles of the bags collectively together when the bags are set by the user into an automobile trunk, onto an automobile seat, onto a table or counter, or any other surface, even after the strap is released by the user and the bags are permitted to relax, thereby to prevent the goods contained within the bags from spilling or otherwise escaping.
In a preferred embodiment, the device of the present invention is fabricated of a band-like material having a flattened transverse extent of a uniform transverse dimension along the full lengthwise extent of the strap, e.g., a narrow-width textile fabric. The loop portions of the strap are formed by free ends of the band being folded and secured to a medial lengthwise extent of the strap, preferably at a common medial location along the strap forming the loop portions to be of like dimensions and configurations.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the device and method of the present invention will be described in and be apparent from the disclosure of a preferred embodiment set forth hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.